June 11, 2015
When you’ve been wronged, it’s hard not to want to dish out some revenge. If someone insults you in front of your friends or wife, you want to get them back big time. We’re hard wired for revenge though in proper society we are rarely afforded the chance. Revenge is often illegal, at least the ways that we want to dish it out and then there’s the whole problem of escalating the problem and starting a war with someone that has no reasonable end. Most of us just swallow the revenge vibe and try to be a bigger person. I think that’s why revenge films often resonate so well. We can understand the characters motivations and love to watch the bad guys get their just deserts. I adore revenge films (Death Wish flicks anyone?) and knew I had to get my hands on The Mega Book of Revenge Films. I’m glad I did.
As you might expect, The Mega Book of Revenge Films is a reference guide chock full of cold hard justice. The book is separated by the genre of revenge taken. Whether it’s vigilante justice (my favorite kind!), blaxploitation, samurai/ninja films, westerns, comedies, drama, horror, you name it, it’s here. So if you want to see a revenge flick but also want to see a comedy, the book has you covered. It’s fun being able to cross reference the book to find new gems in the various genres to check out on a Saturday night. The book covers the classics as well as big time B movie picks and outright hilariously bad cheese. The author treats them all evenly, recommending the so bad they’re good films as heartily as the legitmately fantastic. I love that! Often films in reference guides are completely cast aside if they are terrible, which is understandable, but the author understands that some films are a huge bucket of fun because they’re bad. The reviews themselves are short and sweet, essentially what I look for in a reference guide. The intent of the book isn’t to inform the reader of trivia but to inform the reader about fantastic films to dig into. Nor does the book deeply analyze the theme of revenge. But the book was never meant to. It’s a fun reference guide that’s a pleasure to flip through and write down a huge list of films to check out.
The book is by no means comprehensive. The author cherry picks some of his favorite films and passes on that knowledge to us. Indeed this is merely the first volume in what will hopefully be a robust series of books about revenge films. Revenge a common theme and there’s plenty of other films out there for the author to mine, watch, and report back to us. I’m looking forward to it! Honestly had the book been comprehensive it might have been a drag. I don’t need to read about a ton of unsuccessful films and dig through a book to find one good review. He trimmed the fat and gave us the goods.
The Mega Book of Revenge Films is a fast fun read that I enjoyed reading. I found some new flicks to check out (Leo Fong!), what more can you ask for?
